


read my lips (tell me what i want to hear)

by heykiddos



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Red & Green & Blue & Yellow | Pokemon Red Green Blue Yellow Versions
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV Second Person, also should i add warning tags?, help and corrections are welcomed, placeholder title, teen and up for swearing, undergoing major revisions, was a bit worried about spoiling it but i'm fine with adding them if the need arises
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 18:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21342442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heykiddos/pseuds/heykiddos
Summary: You turn around, not wanting to see him walking away from you. A bitter taste is still left in your mouth, though, which is stupid, since what else were you expecting? That RED came over to say hi?As if. No one comes to see you for just you. Always your grandfather, or your sister, or RED of all people, who you barely see nowadays. But never you.But you roll with the punches. You always do.It's not like you can do anything else.a story about two boys through the years, how they grow and change, and how it's not always for the better.
Relationships: Ookido Green | Blue Oak & Ookido Nanami | Daisy Oak, Ookido Green | Blue Oak & Ookido Yukinari-hakase | Professor Samuel Oak, Ookido Green | Blue Oak & Red, Ookido Green | Blue Oak/Red
Kudos: 17





	read my lips (tell me what i want to hear)

You are eleven the day your grandpa decides you are ready to leave the house.

Well, less him deciding and more you pestering him until he said yes. He can't ignore you if you're standing right in front of him, after all.

Some days you wonder if he does that on purpose. Brushing you off, ignoring you, forgetting your name even though you guys live in the same. dang. house. You know, the usual.

Other days you wonder if it isn't an act; that you really do mean that little to him. Just a blip on the radar, quickly forgotten.

Those days are the bad days.

But it doesn't matter what he thinks, because you. are about to get. your own. friggin. pokémon. Details schmetails, as they say.

So you go to the lab, first thing in the morning, and wait.

And wait.

Annnd wait.

You're starting to think he forgot about you (which is... more likely than you'd like to admit) when RED walks in.

"Probably here to see Gramps," you think bitterly. You don't turn around at his arrival, though, deciding to play it cool and pretend not to notice him.  
But then he's standing next to you, looking at you, and, well. You can't ignore someone if they're right next to you, after all.

You turn around to face him, arms crossed and leaning back like you've seen all those boys on TV do. Except there's nothing to lean on, so you sort of just glower at him like you're a mom chastising her son. But you pull it off(or a least you like to think you do).

You frown at him, giving no other acknowledgment of his existence. You're eleven, darn it, not some preschooler waving hello to his best friend.

"Gramps isn't around." you say, which is short for "He isn't here, so you can go now".

He stands there for just a moment, with something close to hesitation written on his face. But he just gives you a short nod back before going out in search of your grandfather.

Or not. He probably won't need too, anyway.

You turn around, not wanting to see him walking away from you. A bitter taste is still left in your mouth, though, which is stupid, since what else were you expecting? That RED came over to say hi?

As if. No one comes to see you for just you. Always your grandfather, or your sister, or RED of all people, who you barely see nowadays. But never you.

But you roll with the punches. You always do.

It's not like you can do anything else.

-

Gramps finally arrives- with RED at his tail, no less. You scoff. Of course he did.

"Gramps! I'm fed up with waiting!" You were fed up with a lot of things, actually, but there is such a thing as time and place.

"Blue?" The look he gives you makes him either the best actor in the world or the champion of selective forgetfulness. "Let me think… Oh, that's right. I told you to come! Just wait!"

And then he turns to RED, and has the nerve to say, "Here, RED! These Poké Balls each hold a Pokémon, which you'll need if you want to become a Pokémon master."

"Yeah, I know Gramps," you think sullenly. "I've been dreaming about those stupid Poké Balls ever since you started talking about RED's 11th birthday- and, funnily enough, forgetting about your own grandson's in the process."

He goes on to ramble about "when he was young" and his days as an elite Pokémon trainer. You zone out- nothing you haven't heard before, after all- before you catch the tail end of his sentence."

"...but you can have one! Choose!"

Oh heck no. "Hey, Gramps! What about me?"

"Be patient! BLUE, you can have one too!"

"Yeah, but RED gets it first," you think jealously. "He didn't even ask for one like I did, let alone ask you first! I bet you just saw him walking around and said, "Hey, I have some Pokémon back in my lab! You want one?" while totally forgetting the fact that your actual grandson has been waiting there since the crack of dawn for the very. same. thing."

You clench your fists in frustration and grit your teeth, knowing better by now than to try and get Gramps's attention when his real favorite, RED, is right there.

RED taps your shoulders, bringing you out of your thoughts, and you tense up, before lifting your head, giving him a tight smile. "What?" you're about to say, but RED interrupts you in that quiet way of his, gesturing with his head to the table. "You wanna go first?" his eyes say.

And you soften at that; imperceptibly so, but still. 

He's always been like that- thoughtful and patient and understanding all at once; everything your grandfather should have been too you but wasn't.

You reassure him and thank him the only way you know how. Mockery. "I don't need to be greedy like you! Go ahead and choose, RED!"

You wish you could be soft. You wish you could care about people without h aving to cover it with insults and jeers.

But RED is patient, so so patient with you- more so than you deserve, that's for sure. So he shrugs and chooses the Squirtle, no hesitation about it.

Huh. So maybe he really did plan for this. Or he chose at random. Both are equally as likely, to be honest.

"Your Pokémon is really energetic! He seems to like you!" your grandpa states. Could he be more obvious about it? No need to hide it, Gramps; we all know who your favorite grandson is.

It's not you, that's for certain.

You go over to the one that has Bulbasaur in it and pick it up, relishing the feel of it in your hand. You turn back to RED, grinning. "I'll take this one, then!"

You throw the ball up, watching the harsh laboratory lights shine down on the red covering before it falls back in your hand. You ignore Gramps chastising you for being so careless and look at RED, grinning. "My Pokémon looks stronger," you note, feeling proud of yourself. Grass beats Water, after all.

You glance back down at it and look inside; and for a moment, you swear, you saw the Bulbasaur sitting in there, looking right back at you.

RED takes no note of your bragging, practically immune to it by now, but still lingers a bit before leaving; chatting with your(although he's more his than yours, go figure) grandpa and skimming the PC.

He's on his still on his way out much too soon, though- and it feels wrong, seeing him leaving. It makes something in your stomach churn unpleasantly.

So you stall, as you always tend to do; desperate to hold onto things that don't want to stay. You call out to him.

You (not run, don't want to seem as desperate as you feel inside) walk towards him and stop, nerves making your stutter like a chattering Raticate. "Wait RED! Let's check out our Pokémon!" 

"Come on, I'll take you on!" you say, which is the closest you've ever got to pleading- with anyone, period. You throw out your Pokémon, then, leaving him no choice other than to run away, which has never been his style,

To be fair, RED doesn't seem too reluctant to throw out his own Squirtle in turn.

It could also be the fact, though, that he's always been one too, if not cater, go along with your whims. He always was one to wait out the storm, finding it easier to flow with the river than against it like your sister said, in a sudden fit of poetry last summer by the shore.

It's then, in your first real battle, with real-life Pokémon, made for fighting, that you finally feel a sense of belonging. Like you could do this forever. That this was the life for you. A feeling no one could take away, _ever_.

But then it ends in a flash, with you as the loser, because of course it does. It's always him. Always.

But it's not *your* fault your pokemon suck. You just... chose wrong. Or something. But it isn't. your. fault.

Whatever. You'll just have to make it fight to toughen it up a bit. Nothing says hard-earned lesson like a couple of scraped knees and bruised knuckles, after all.

You say as much to RED and your grandpa, who will probably forget about this conversation as soon as you leave the room. But like you said, it's whatever. It's cool.

Soon you'll be too big for anyone to ignore you. 

He'll see, RED and him both. They'll all see.

**Author's Note:**

> if you made it to the end, congrats! this is awful but i'm keeping it up at for archive purposes. I am going through my old fics and revamping them, though, so this one might get the same treatment too.


End file.
